About · Engineering studio · Leeds

A small studio that ships systems, not decks.

Canarlo is the work of a small team led from Leeds. We build production software for founders and operators who need a real product — not another website, not another prototype, not another vendor relationship.

Founder

Christian Gibbs

Leeds, UK · hello@canarlo.com

Founder note

I started Canarlo because the agency model is broken in a specific, expensive way: it charges you to rebuild the same foundation every project, calls the rebuild discovery, and pitches with a senior engineer who never writes the code.

The work I want to do is the part that is yours — your domain, your customers, your business logic. Everything else — auth, data model, payments, search, security posture — should already be correct on day one. That's what Canarlo is built to do.

The team is small on purpose. The people on the call are the people writing the code. There is no PM layer, no white-labelling, no subcontracting. If a question reaches me, I am the person who answers it.

I'd rather build twelve excellent systems a year than thirty merely-fine ones.

What we believe

Four principles. Visible in every engagement.

Principle 01
Invariants are load-bearing.
Auth on every action. Validation on every input. Per-row security at the database, not in the page that renders the list. The patterns are named, the patterns are tested.
Principle 02
Discovery is a call. Maybe two.
Not a six-week tax on the prospect's hope that the project might still be on time. We document the invariants, the failure modes, and the assumptions you have outgrown. Then we build.
Principle 03
The codebase is yours.
On your domains, with your keys. Plain TypeScript, plain Postgres, plain Next.js. If you bring it in-house, you can. The handover is the point.
Principle 04
We say no more than yes.
A project that is wrong for us is wrong for the client. The worst outcome for both sides is a build that limps to launch and disappoints everyone. Disqualifying cleanly is part of the work.

Ideal fit

We say no more often than we say yes. Honestly.

A project that is wrong for us is wrong for the client too. The worst outcome for both sides is a build that limps to launch. So we qualify cleanly, on the first call.

Yes if

The product is real. You can sketch the data model on a napkin.
There is one decision-maker with budget authority.
Studio-tier budget — between £25,000 and £75,000.
A target date driven by something real, with flexibility if circumstances change.
You want to own the outcome, not rent software from a vendor.
You'd rather hear 'no, that's a security risk' than 'yes, we'll figure it out'.

✕ No if

You are still figuring out what to build.
No single buyer can sign without convening a committee.
£25,000 is the most you can spend, not the least.
The launch date was committed to before an engineer was consulted.
You want a partner to define product, audience, pricing, go-to-market.
You want to outsource long-term and never look at the codebase.

Not quite the right shape today, but maybe in 3–6 months? Tell us what you are working on. We will say so honestly, and point you at the right partner for the stage you're at.

One call

If the work is a fit, we will say so.

If not, we will tell you who to talk to instead. That part is free.

Start a project Read principles

Four principles. Visible in every engagement.

Principle 01

Invariants are load-bearing.

Auth on every action. Validation on every input. Per-row security at the database, not in the page that renders the list. The patterns are named, the patterns are tested.

Principle 02

Discovery is a call. Maybe two.

Not a six-week tax on the prospect's hope that the project might still be on time. We document the invariants, the failure modes, and the assumptions you have outgrown. Then we build.

Principle 03

The codebase is yours.

On your domains, with your keys. Plain TypeScript, plain Postgres, plain Next.js. If you bring it in-house, you can. The handover is the point.

Principle 04

We say no more than yes.

A project that is wrong for us is wrong for the client. The worst outcome for both sides is a build that limps to launch and disappoints everyone. Disqualifying cleanly is part of the work.

We say no more often than we say yes. Honestly.

A project that is wrong for us is wrong for the client too. The worst outcome for both sides is a build that limps to launch. So we qualify cleanly, on the first call.

Yes if

The product is real. You can sketch the data model on a napkin.
There is one decision-maker with budget authority.
Studio-tier budget — between £25,000 and £75,000.
A target date driven by something real, with flexibility if circumstances change.
You want to own the outcome, not rent software from a vendor.
You'd rather hear 'no, that's a security risk' than 'yes, we'll figure it out'.

✕ No if

You are still figuring out what to build.
No single buyer can sign without convening a committee.
£25,000 is the most you can spend, not the least.
The launch date was committed to before an engineer was consulted.
You want a partner to define product, audience, pricing, go-to-market.
You want to outsource long-term and never look at the codebase.

Not quite the right shape today, but maybe in 3–6 months? Tell us what you are working on. We will say so honestly, and point you at the right partner for the stage you're at.